Deep in the ether, a pair of lights flare into existence. These blazes of creation, of brilliant kaleidoscope colors, orbit one another in an intricate dance of birth and purpose. Their light intermingles as they draw close to one another, racing to the echo of divine footfalls in the far distance. They did not speak, but simply understood the other in the sense that only gods could. United.
The race intensified as they rocketed toward their goal, and soon they began to spiral. Faster. Faster. Faster. The dust and motes of creation appeared and vanished far behind them into the darkness. But suddenly, they felt… something: A pull of terrifying strength that clashed the twins together, only for them to ricochet off the other in an attempt to escape the fell clutch. They turned towards the other in midflight and summoning their fledgling strength, sent waves of force like a wedge between them. They bounced and struggled as they flew, but the distance between them was surely thinning. Faster. Faster. Faster. They had felt joy, and now knew only horror at the inevitable.
The rocky mass loomed into sight. A speck at first, it then swiftly enveloped their vision. There was no distance between them now, and they felt the first wave of anguish as their bodies fused at the fringes of their essence. The planet drew closer and closer, grew larger and larger, and the twins felt themselves enveloped in light…and each other.
A warped scream echoed into the ether and, having no boundaries in the darkness, was lost forever.
He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. -Revelation 21:6
There was a crash. Uneven layers of stone were crushed and pushed aside. The light flared in brilliance once more, and then vanished. A gentle tremor flowed through the bones of the planet and then... was still.
Hours? Months? Centuries? Only Seconds?
He felt consumed with pain-a pain that was as integral to him as his deific essence. It coursed through his misshappen body at the terrible pounding of his twisted hearts, and defied his commands that it stop, or at least fade away. He also felt...
something. An innate and horrible wrongness with his whole being. He would scream, but he felt soo tired-so sick. Things moved and pulsed and convulsed within his body, gowing into boils and cysts that seemed to churn with thier own life. Then the sickness took one pair of his eyes, dragging it into the depths of film-ridden blindness. Sores grew into patches of grey and black within his mouth; the tounge of his other head shriveled and grew dry.
He scrapped his hands over his body, rending flesh from his back and tearing open scabs and growths alike to let the pus ooze freely.
He shook with agony, and with sickness, and even more from dread.
He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. -Revelation 21:6
I wish I could come with you my dear Pruinus, but Leaf deigns that life is superior to all. That all must live forever and will never die. For that he dares to disrupt the balance, but I shall let him have his way for now. He will one day learn, but until that day comes I will be watching.
Leaf you made these creations. An army for them to command. And they are a faceless army. Let us give them a face shall we? And maybe a will!
Zebus turns himself into a mist and passes through the entire army, and in the blink of an eye, he reforms in front of the gods. The guardian angels once faceless, now slowly start to sport features upon their faces. Upon those faces, emotions start to run as they now have thoughts and wills of their own as the souls in their bodies start to burst forth.
Your creations, may be guardians, and I may be a god of death, but I am not thoughtless. I have only given them two things: a soul, and a face to reflect it! Maybe they can teach you all what I can not!
Now, my fellow beings, I bid you farewell for now. Onus, I wish our meeting wasn't as eventful nor as short as it may be, but maybe one day we can sit and chat, until then, farewell!
2AP command: As Zebus flew threw the faceless army, he imparts a soul and a gives them faces to show it (ie: emotions)
1AP command: Free will: as Zebus continues to leave his mark upon the other god's army of angels, what he doesn't tell them is that he also gave them the ability to choose, or free will.
I am both selfish and chaotic. I value self-gratification and control; I want to have things my way, preferably now. At best, I'm entertaining and surprising; at worst, I'm hedonistic and violent.
Onus crouched down at the approach of the little Leaf and folded his wings behind him, resting his hands on his knees. He nodded slightly as he listened and after a moment replied in his slow gravelly voice, I cannot forgive you, little Leaf, for to do so would imply that I found insult or injustice with what has occurred. As for your work... I feel it is a burden I was meant to share in...
His eyes don't move off of Leaf as the sword hurtles toward him, but at the last moment one of his wings snaps out and the sword of magma slams into it, leaving a thin rivulet of magma running down as it slides slowly off his wing and into his outstreched hand below. He stands as he looks down at the sword with seeming disintrest, the magma churning and flowing though it still held its form. The skin of his hand pulsed slightly with the power and veins of glowing red began to appear in them. Your heat quickens my pulse, FlameLord. What is this purpose you would give to me?
You are not truly alone, Deathlord. Come and find me later. The Lord Leaf presumes too much.
What purpose? The purpose of holding that which I and or the ColdMother have created, for we cannot interact with one another without considerable unpleasantness ensuing. You have passed my test, for you hold my superior blade in your hand. You shall act as an insulator, an intermediary between myself and the ColdMother. But now, StoneLord... Can you handle the element of Cold as well as Fire?
Pruinus herself felt no need to whisper to the Deathlord, he intentions had been clear enough. At least this way she would not have to confront Leaf's question, she did not want to fall out of his favour.
This new creature seemed pleasant enough. He seemed honest at least, but in a less bothersome way then Leaf's mockery of leadership and Agni's threats and grumbles.
Pruinus sighed at the blade in Onu's wing.
"Truly Agni, was there any purpose in testing your theory on our new friend himself? He could have been hurt, or broken."
She looked down at the ring of mountains on the planet. She liked the shape and configuration of it very much. However, she believed she could add more flair to it.
"Onus, I presume these mountains are of the same hardiness of yourself.Let us see how they withstand the burden ofcold."
Pruinus snaps her fingers once, causing mighty glaciers to burst from the earth's surface, stabbing into the mountains, their jagged edges grinding into hard stone, clouds of dust raising up into the atmosphere. As the dust cleared away, the glaciers that had torn through the mountains had appeared to have been creating with intent; the south edge of the ring had mountains and glaciers supporting each other to create a sharp tower of ice and rock, causing the ring of mountains to somewhat resemble a crown or a tiara. From such a great distance, the glaciers even resembled glistening sapphires upon this "Crown"
"Hmmm, these mountains appear to be quite stubborn. Well, now we have a glorious structure to crown our planet. It is starting to look somewhat more attractive I believe."
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AP Command Land - 1 AP to create a ring of glaciers around and inside the mountains themselves, positioned in order to make the ring of mountains to resemble a crown.
1 AP Left. ( I seem to be spending these a little fast)
It had always been my intentions to create a ring of icy mountains and glaciers atop of the planet which resemble a crown, and have this as the region which Pruinus has the most control of. @Crimson Vampire: Apologies if you do not like what I have done with your creation, and feel free to state so to Pruinus or destroy the glaciers outright if you wish.
It sounded like we could also RP non-gods, right? It looks like there wasn't a special requirement in past games, but let me know if I'm doing something wrong.
It didn't have a name. It hadn't wondered why it didnt have a name before. It wondered why it was only now that it wondered that it didn't have a name before.
Good question, It thought.
The thought surprised It, because it wasn't its own thought.
Who said that? It thought back.
I did.
Who are you?
I'm me.
Not you're not, I'm me.
The internal discussion, however, was interrupted. Not far from It, a guardian angel cried out. It shouldn't look, It knew that much. It hadn't been ordered to look, It couldn't look. Except, curiosity got the better of It and It did look. It didn't have time to marvel at how it was able to act without orders, for one simple reason.
It screamed.
There was something horribly, horribly wrong with that angel's face. It had been mangled beyong all recognition. It was hideous! It looked away, but It couldn't erase the nightmarish image from its mind.
And It saw another angel, with an equally malformed face. And another. All of them were that way. Where had the perfection gone, the beautiful smoothness, the flawlessness?
Am I...? Other-It thought.
It reached up and touched its own face. And its screams reached the farthest corners of creation.
It fell to the ground and beat its fists upon the rock in anguish. It looked up and yelled at the injustice. And the other voice in its head yelled with it.
But there was Zebus before them. He had done this.
And It felt shame. In all its life, It had only wanted one thing. To protect life from such a monster. And It had failed. There was no storehouse of successes to soften the sorrow. Just failure.
It stood up and saw that its hands were covered in a thin gray layer of dust. It rubbed the dust on its face. Others near by saw and did likewise. They were all still hideous, but the dirt helped cover their shame. It raised one hand before its face, to help cover the hideous sight from others.
But there was Zebus before them. He had done this. He had done this!
It drew its sword and charged the god. It thrust the blade into Zebus' leg, sinking the sword up to the hilt.
And It shivered with pleasure. Ah, this was a need, a need to defend life against such a foul creature as this. And It had satisfied that need!
But the pleasure passed, and the anger remained. Eager not only to exact revenge but also to feel that pleasure again, It withdrew its blade and struck again.
Pleasure again.
Other angels must have seen what It was doing, for they joined in. An army, a swarm, flying, slashing, stabbing, tearing, screaming, yelling, shivering.
If someone had asked what It would do with its eternal life, if it could choose, It would have told them straight away, "I would hunt and kill Zebus."
I'm assuming defining Angel culture would require AP, though I don't mean this to be something that Leaf is doing: can I spend AP and have it not count in the eyes of other gods as coming from Leaf?
1AP: Command Angels. Define culture. In guardian angel culture, showing someone your face is the highest form of insult. It is absolutely taboo to show anyone your face, including yourself. At present the angels hide their faces as best they can, but as more resources become available, they will craft featureless masks and veils to wear.
Also, their culture is defined by their primal impulses: the orders they were under when Zebus gave them free-will have become those impulses. The deepest and most primal of those impulses is to protect life from Zebus' meddling. As such, their greatest pleasure comes from fulfilling that duty. And since Zebus messed with guardian angels, extracting revenge taps into that impulse (and rewards them with pleasure accordingly). It's like the feeling people get when they eat a tasty meal or engaged in "bedroom activities." And just as prevelant.
Unfortunately, since the angels don't have any experience with emotions, pleasure, and self control, they're in a crazy orgy of revenge. They'll calm down, eventually.
Non-Ap: Since all guardian angels were given an extra soul, they now all suffer from multiple personality disorder.
@Toph, will you be doing anything with that 2AP, or should I spend it on something else?
Pruinus watched the carnage unfold for a few moments, dumbfounded by the angels sudden violence towards Zebus. Around her, she commanded icicle spears to fling towards the angels, driving them away from Zebus.
"Hmm?" Leaf asked Agni. "Flamelord? Would you rather I call you that?"
Surprise crossed Leaf's face as the angels cried out, then confusion as the angel's charged Zebus. "Stop," he shouted to them. Pruinus hadn't needed to urge him so: their unexpected behavior was itself a cause for intervention. A few paused angels paused at Leaf's command and looked back at him, their faces covered by their hands. But, then, they deliberaly turned away again and attacked the god of death, hounding him as he left. Concern replaced confusion. "Pruinus, they will not listen to me. Zebus must have broken my control over them, but you try. By order, I hope he wasn't crazy enough to break your and Agni's control as well."
The goddesses ice-spears impailed angels right and left, but as was the order of life, they vanished and appeared next to Leaf. But before he could do anything, they rushed out again to harry the god that had wronged them.
As Leaf mulled the matter over in his mind, anger replaced concern. "That fool. What did he do to them?"
However, a smile broke through his anger. "I wonder if perhaps I have taken that one too seriously. He said that maybe his changes could teach us something. If he spoke truly, then it seems that he was trying to teach us how to laugh."
However, as Onus spoke, Leaf turned his full attention to him and listened with eager... well, leaves don't really have ears, but if they did, Leaf would have listened with eager ones of those. With the rock god's fine words, Leaf nearly lept with joy. "Thank you, dear Onus. If you would join us in building up this world, then I will devote myself to your welfare. I have no glory beyond that the glory of you, Pruinus, and Agni. Your enemies will be my enemies, your friends my friends. If there is anything you wish of me, you have only to ask and it will be given with both hands."
As Zebus was chased near Agni, the Lord Flamberlain spoke to him. It was clear that Agni wished to not be overheard, and Leaf wished to respect that. He took a step away and hummed to himself loudly, so that no hidden words might make their way to his... well, again, leaves don't have ears. He trusted Agni completely.
